1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic money holding system, and more particularly to an electronic money holding device which makes it possible to automatically perform a payment having an amount payable and a due date both known from a contract beforehand, and an electronic money automatic payment method which uses such a device.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a method in which a so-called "electronic money" is held in an IC chip on an IC card and is transferred through a network, there is known a method based on MONDEX money as disclosed by, for example, "Shukan Diamond (combined number in the New Year of Heisei 8)" published on January 1996.
In this conventional payment method using the IC card, the IC card is set into a dedicated reader/writer (or IC card reader/writer). Thereafter, for example, a payer manually operates a dedicated telephone or a personal computer (PC).
On the other hand, as a method in which an amount of money prescribed by a contract is paid to a service provider on a date prescribed by the same contract, there is a method for an automatic transfer through a bank account. This payment by automatic transfer through a bank account is realized by an accounting system which manages a ledger database and processes a payment transaction. In the accounting system, the process is performed in accordance with the same procedure irrespective of the amount of money to be paid.
In the payment by automatic transfer through a bank account, the automatic transfer is set or released by the accounting system in accordance with an instruction from a payee. The accounting system is concentrically managed at a computer center.
The above-mentioned prior art is based on, for example, the manual operation of a dedicated telephone or a personal computer by a payer. Therefore, for example, the payment of a premium involves a problem that the payer has to perform a manual operation similarly each time, notwithstanding that an amount payable and a due date are known from a contract beforehand.